B2B Is Only as Boring As You Make It

June 4, 2015

It’s Not B2B—It’s You.

B2B is boring. B2B is dry. “You can’t do that in B2B.”

These are just a few of the common statements I hear as a B2B marketing professional. And while none of these statements reflect the reality of today’s B2B marketing environment, the sighs they produce from me are very real.

That’s why I was excited to read a recent article from Business 2 Community, focusing on “What ‘Boring’ Industries Can Do to Spice Up a Content Marketing Plan.” As a B2B marketing firm ourselves, we’re constantly looking for new ways to make content more exciting and interesting to read. (For one example, check out our series of blog posts, “What Trade Show Marketers Can Learn from Horror Movies: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3—or simply download the fun whitepaper here.)

The article lays out some great tips for B2B marketers that they can follow to create compelling content:

Tell a story: Frame the information within the context of a story, rather than a smattering of unrelated facts.

Create “human interest:” While human interest may not always lay out all the facts and figures, it creates a personal connection and a large-scale case for why those products are useful.

Make it relatable: Don’t let complexity translate to inaccessibility. (Ex. Rather than trying to sell a product for the solutions it can provide, tell the story of a customer who actually solved a problem using the product.)

Use infographics: They’re highly sharable and can be fantastic at driving traffic to a site. We created the incredibly simple summary infographic below as a visual aid within a client’s whitepaper. The twist? It unexpectedly drove most of the traffic for the content via social media, increasing the overall success of the campaign and making it the most successful one to date. Why? Because it summarized the piece, giving a high-level look at the content within, and as a result, made people want to read more.

Use memes or cartoons: Using humor can show a company’s personality while also offering opportunities for interaction that didn’t previously exist.

These are just a few of the ways you can make your content more exciting and disprove the notion that B2B is boring. And remember, if you think B2B is boring, it might not be B2B—it might just be you.